Join us for the third instalment of #synbiosyd supported by Blackbird Ventures and CSIRO's Future Science Platform for Synthetic Biology.

Join us at our next meetup on July 30 to hear from A/Prof Claudia Vickers, on Australia's future bio-based economy powered by Synbio. As well as converting agricultural biomass to industrially-useful biochemicals like jet fuel, plant hormones, food additives (flavours, colours, etc.), fragrances, and pharmaceuticals.

Welcome to the Sydney synbio meetup, we bring together scientists and entrepreneurs to make the world a bit better using synthetic biology.

Whether you are a scientist, entrepreneur or somewhere in between this meetup is for you. At each and every meetup you will hear from a leading scientist in the field as well as an investor or entrepreneur building a synthetic biology startup.

In our second meetup you will hear from two people with very different experiences with synthetic biology. Sam Wong is partner at Blackbird Ventures and will be speaking about why she is so interested in helping outstanding Australian synthetic biology founders make an impact on the world.

6pm doors open and networking drinks served

6:30pm - Speaker TBC - check back soon or message George to suggest a speaker!

MedLab is Australia’s accelerator for medtech startups run by Cicada Innovations. Every year we spend 6 months surrounding visionary startup founders with everything they need to build a strong, investable medtech company.

We are looking for driven and visionary founders ready to push their early stage tech business forward to the next level. We surround you with outstanding mentors, invest in your business and provide free space (including shared wetlabs and hardware prototyping labs) for six months!

We showcased our six medtech startups at our inaugural MedLab demo day in February this year, where they pitched to over 400 people on how they are changing the face of healthcare today.

This year we are changing a few things to make MedLab even better, come along to find out!

MedLab's second cohort is about to kick off and we are here to tell you all about it, answer all of your questions and give you a chance to meet some of our mentors and program team.

GrowLab is Australia’s accelerator for agrifood deep tech startups run by Cicada Innovations. Every year we spend 6 months surrounding visionary startup founders with everything they need to build a strong, investable agrifood tech company.

We are looking for driven and visionary founders ready to push their early stage tech business forward to the next level. We surround you with outstanding mentors, invest in your business and provide free space (including wetlabs and hardware prototyping labs) for six months!

In GrowLab's first two crops we have supported 11 agrifood tech companies who have gone on to raise over $16m and now employ over 50 people between them. This is something we are really proud of.

This year we are changing a few things to make GrowLab even better, come along to find out!

GrowLab's third crop is about to kick off and we are here to tell you all about it, answer all of your questions and give you a chance to meet some of our mentors and program team.

We at Cicada Innovations believe that success in deep tech goes beyond the idea, beyond the research, beyond the tech. We believe that strong founding teams are what will ultimately supercharge a startup to succeed and get their revolutionary product to market.

This event will feature successful deep tech Founders talking about the cocktail of skills and attributes that - when shaken or stirred - will result in the best founding teams! We'll be hearing from:

Welcome to the Sydney synbio meetup, we bring together scientists and entrepreneurs to make the world a bit better using synthetic biology.

Whether you are a scientist, entrepreneur or somewhere in between this meetup is for you. At each and every meetup you will hear from a leading scientist in the field as well as an investor or entrepreneur building a synthetic biology startup.

In our first meetup you will hear from two people with very different experiences with synthetic biology. Hugh Goold is hard at work on the Yeast 2.0 project and will talk about where the science is going. Gordon Black has been an early investor in Bolt Threads and has been working closely with the team at Bolt Threads since 2015.

6pm doors open and networking drinks served

6:30pm - Hugh Goold on Synthetic biology: Where biological engineering came from, and where it’s going

6:45pm - Gordon Black on how to build a synbio company, his experience as an investor in Bolt Threads

7:00pm - Q&A with Hugh and Gordon

7:15pm - networking drinks and pizza

8:30pm - doors close

About our speakers

Hugh Goold

Hugh is a part of the international Yeast 2.0 consortium, and in conjunction with the Macquarie University, the NSW Department of Primary Industries is working on constructing part of the world’s first synthetic eukaryotic genome.The resulting yeast will be a unique research instrument for development of understanding fundamental biological questions on a whole genome scale relating to chromosome structure and function, the roles of mobile genetic elements, as well as serving a useful tool in development of new yeast strains through directed evolution, and novel biosensors.

Gordon Black

Gordon Black, CEO and founder of East West Capital has extensive work experience in the USA, the Asia Pacific region and Australia. Gordon will be speaking about his experience investing in synthetic biology startups.

The Sydney Synthetic Biology Meetup is powered by Cicada Innovations with support from our friends at Blackbird Ventures and CSIRO's Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform.

We support and deliver upon the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s Agenda (NISA) and its commitment to build a knowledge based economy and increase awareness and participation of women in education and careers relating to STEM.

Project XX features our successful female STEM entrepreneurs as role models and and tap into their knowledge, experience and notable achievements to help spread awareness and participation to the next generation of women in STEM.

There are no lack of female role models in deep tech startups however, they are rarely featured which is something we need to address in order to secure future participation of women in this important field.

Project XX’s educational event and workshop is followed by networking, targeting women studying STEM at the University and allowing them to explore career paths within STEM outside of academia.

OBJECTIVES & BENEFITS

Encourage female undergrad, post grad and PhD students to pursue a career in STEM

Inspire women to found their own tech startups or to work in a tech startup or scale-up by tapping into Cicada Innovations’ community of female deep tech entrepreneurs

Increase awareness of the range of opportunities for women arising from STEM education

Provide female university students with options to consider an alternate career pathway with advanced technology startups

Provide women with a network of other like-minded women in STEM

COURSE DETAILS

Project XX is a half-day informative and interactive course taking place on developed and facilitated by Cicada Innovations’ female business advisors.

Women entrepreneurs from our deep technology startups will also assist in the delivery of this workshop, sharing their expertise, experiences and inspirational stories. Women led session for women!

Following the workshop, we will invite attendees to stay for drinks, nibbles and networking with the other aspiring women entrepreneurs, women studying STEM subjects, other deep technology enthusiasts and the workshop facilitators

Solving global medical problems with technologies that are turning the invisible visible for diagnosis through to the transformation of vaccinations into pills, these 6 stellar companies are reshaping healthcare as we know it.

MedLab harnesses Cicada's long, highly respected history in the field of medical innovation in Australia by bringing together a dedicated program team and a pool of 40+ distinguished mentors and domain experts to guide early stage medtech startups in their journey to becoming pioneers of transformation in medicine and healthcare.

Register now to discover why Cicada Innovations is truly Australia’s home of deep tech. You’ll hear our amazing cohort pitches, meet the founders behind the pitches as well as our extended community in research, industry, investment and government… in other words, the who’s who of Sydney’s deep tech ecosystem.

Tickets are free but we promise you untold value in the companies you will hear from, the people you will get the opportunity to meet, the food and drinks that will fuel your conversations and the lasting inspiration you’ll take away.

Are you working on a food technology that could change the way we eat? Have you thought about building a startup but don’t know where to begin?

We are here to help! In half a day we will cover the basics of where to begin to build a foodtech startup. In just a few hours you’ll learn the basics of Lean Startup Methodology, meet like-minded people and sharpen your idea. You’ll come away with a clear set of next steps to take if a startup is right for you and your technology.

We will cover:

What is a startup and is it the right path for you?

What is Lean Startup and when is the right time to speak with customers?

What is the size of the opportunity for your food technology?

What is your value proposition compared to what is already on the market?

What are the (first) missing pieces you will need to work on? (marketing, regulation, manufacturing etc.)

What are your highest priority next steps?

By the end of this workshop you will leave with a clear idea as to whether a startup is the right way for you to take your food tech to the world and have a clear plan of the next steps you will need to take.

Are you working on a agricultural technology that could change the way we grow food? Have you thought about building a startup but don’t know where to begin?

We are here to help! In half a day we will cover the basics of where to begin to build a foodtech startup. In just a few hours you’ll learn the basics of Lean Startup Methodology, meet like-minded people and sharpen your idea. You’ll come away with a clear set of next steps to take if a startup is right for you and your technology.

We will cover:

What is a startup and is it the right path for you?

What is Lean Startup and when is the right time to speak with customers?

What is the size of the opportunity for your food technology?

What is your value proposition compared to what is already on the market?

What are the (first) missing pieces you will need to work on? (marketing, regulation, manufacturing etc.)

What are your highest priority next steps?

By the end of this workshop you will leave with a clear idea as to whether a startup is the right way for you to take your agtech to the world and have a clear plan of the next steps you will need to take.

Are you working on a agricultural technology that could change the way we grow food? Have you thought about building a startup but don’t know where to begin?

We are here to help! In half a day we will cover the basics of where to begin to build a foodtech startup. In just a few hours you’ll learn the basics of Lean Startup Methodology, meet like-minded people and sharpen your idea. You’ll come away with a clear set of next steps to take if a startup is right for you and your technology.

We will cover:

What is a startup and is it the right path for you?

What is Lean Startup and when is the right time to speak with customers?

What is the size of the opportunity for your food technology?

What is your value proposition compared to what is already on the market?

What are the (first) missing pieces you will need to work on? (marketing, regulation, manufacturing etc.)

What are your highest priority next steps?

By the end of this workshop you will leave with a clear idea as to whether a startup is the right way for you to take your agtech to the world and have a clear plan of the next steps you will need to take.

Are you working on a agricultural technology that could change the way we grow food? Have you thought about building a startup but don’t know where to begin?

We are here to help! In half a day we will cover the basics of where to begin to build a foodtech startup. In just a few hours you’ll learn the basics of Lean Startup Methodology, meet like-minded people and sharpen your idea. You’ll come away with a clear set of next steps to take if a startup is right for you and your technology.

We will cover:

What is a startup and is it the right path for you?

What is Lean Startup and when is the right time to speak with customers?

What is the size of the opportunity for your food technology?

What is your value proposition compared to what is already on the market?

What are the (first) missing pieces you will need to work on? (marketing, regulation, manufacturing etc.)

What are your highest priority next steps?

By the end of this workshop you will leave with a clear idea as to whether a startup is the right way for you to take your agtech to the world and have a clear plan of the next steps you will need to take.

Are you working on a food technology that could change the way we eat? Have you thought about building a startup but don’t know where to begin?

We are here to help! In half a day we will cover the basics of where to begin to build a foodtech startup. In just a few hours you’ll learn the basics of Lean Startup Methodology, meet like-minded people and sharpen your idea. You’ll come away with a clear set of next steps to take if a startup is right for you and your technology.

We will cover:

What is a startup and is it the right path for you?

What is Lean Startup and when is the right time to speak with customers?

What is the size of the opportunity for your food technology?

What is your value proposition compared to what is already on the market?

What are the (first) missing pieces you will need to work on? (marketing, regulation, manufacturing etc.)

What are your highest priority next steps?

By the end of this workshop you will leave with a clear idea as to whether a startup is the right way for you to take your food tech to the world and have a clear plan of the next steps you will need to take.

What's the buzz this month? We are inviting the wider deep tech ecosystem to join us to kick off 2019 at this networking event.

We will be joined by a special guest designer, Thomas Wing-Evans who will help inspire the audience to think STEAM by discussing the creation of the experimental project for the State Library of New South Wales, 80Hz.

Designed in collaboration with the DX Lab, 80Hz takes paintings from the library’s collection and turns them into music.

About 80Hz:80Hz is an experimental project for exploring the State Library of New South Wales catalogue through sound. Designed in collaboration with the DX Lab, 80Hz takes paintings from the library’s collection and turns them into music.

About Thomas Wing-Evans: Thomas Wing-Evans is a designer and architect based in Sydney delivering projects that bridge the gap between physical and digital. His work spans experimental architecture, research-driven installations, photographic expeditions, short stories and co-directing a design festival with a focus on new media and emerging technology. He is currently digital innovation fellow for the State Library of NSW.

About DX Lab:The DX Lab is The State Library of NSW’s innovation lab that builds and supports new ways of design thinking, experimentation and research with technology. The DX Lab is a place where innovation and collaboration are explored. We deliver creative, engaging and new ways to explore the Library’s collections, data sets and services through digital experiments. We use existing and emerging technologies to build experiences onsite and online.

Are you working on a food technology that could change the way we eat? Have you thought about building a startup but don’t know where to begin?

We are here to help! In half a day we will cover the basics of where to begin to build a foodtech startup. We will work with you to help you understand whether a startup is right for you and how to take the first steps down that path.

We will cover:

What is a startup and is it the right path for you?

What is the size of the opportunity for your food technology?

What is your value proposition compared to what is already on the market?

What are the (first) missing pieces you will need to work on? (marketing, regulation, manufacturing etc.)

What are your highest priority next steps?

By the end of this workshop you will leave with a clear idea as to whether a startup is the right way for you to take your food tech to the world and have a clear plan of the next steps you will need to take.

Australia's home of deep tech, Cicada Innovations, invites you to our networking and drinks event: The Monthly Buzz!

What's the buzz this month? Cicada Innovations will be celebrating the end of 2018 and a great year for the deep tech ecosystem! We will be acknowledging the best of our deep tech community with awards for companies' notable achievements.

The Monthly Buzz event aims to connect entrepreneurs, start-ups, industry and researchers to discover the latest technology developments and explore the possibility for exciting collaboration opportunities.

Select REGISTER to confirm your ticket for the evening of awards, networking, drinks and pizza!

"Mind the Gap - Getting from Seed to Series A: The Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make and How To Fix Them" with Steve Barsh, Dreamit Ventures.

In this fast­paced and information-packed presentation learn the tricks and traps to successfully navigate the Series A funding gap, what Series A investors are looking for, and how to successfully close a Series A round. The talk is based on Dreamit Ventures’ acceleration of over 300 companies in 10 years.

In this talk you’ll learn:

The 6 most common reasons founders fail to close a round and what to do about them

The critical importance of shaping your story, explaining your vision, and having credibility

The importance of understanding your biggest risks and assumptions and how to clearly articulate what they are

and your plan to overcome them

The 12 slides to have in your pitch deck and what you should cover

How much to ask for and common mistakes many entrepreneurs make

The metrics you need to show and the difference between the absolute number and the rate of change (AKA

business velocity)

How to get from Term Sheet to Close (aka due diligence) as quickly and easily as possible

About Steve:

Steve Barsh is a Managing Partner at Dreamit Ventures, a US­based early­stage venture fund that accelerates startups building transformative companies in the fields of healthcare, real estate/built environment, and security. Steve has over 30 years of experience starting, leading, launching, and building multinational companies as well asearly­stage venture work. He has helped launch over 100 companies that have generated over $1B in enterprise value. He has extensive experience working with entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists and physicians on rapid identification and de­risking of critical make­or­break assumptions as well as shaping their companies along withguiding their early­stage venture rounds.

Steve started his first company while he was graduating from college and sold that company seven years later to MCI where he went on to lead the combined division. He is a special advisor to NASA for their annual NASA Cross Industry Innovation Summit. Steve taught in the Wharton MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania and has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two children.

This "How to Hire" knowledge session will focus on how to hire and build teams as you scale, with a two-hour session for the Cicada Founders community.

The presenter, Anthony, founded Think & Grow in 2015. Their mission is to help businesses unlock digital led growth through great people by providing Executive Search and Specialist Consulting to fast growth technology businesses including Canva and Airtasker.

Outside of the day to day Think & Grow actively contribute to the startup community through knowledge sharing, mentoring and investment.

Would you like to put your creative problem-solving mind to the test to help the Australian red meat industry become carbon neutral by 2030 and in doing so have the opportunity to win some amazing prizes?

Cicada Innovations and the Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) are launching three carbon neutrality challenges.

At the launch event, we will discuss the details of the three challenges:

1) Delivery mechanisms for continued supply of bioactive or novel compounds into the diet of cattle, sheep, and goats in order to reduce or eliminate methane emissions without compromising the productivity of the animal, and

Attendees will learn how they can take part in the hackathon-style competition (which will take place on the 2nd February 2019 at Cicada Innovations- Sydney) and have the chance to win a $10,000 cash prize and more!

We invite you to come and learn about how you can participate in this important mission to reduce the livestock industry’s carbon emissions for environmental sustainability and a greener future.

Are you interested in becoming an Angel Investor? Come and hear Vivian Stewart senior Sydney Angels investor and Committee Member detail what it takes to be an excellent investor in the complex world of start-ups

Cicada Innovations in partnership with East West Capital are hosting a Q&A with Dan Widmaier, CEO and founder of Bolt Threads to discuss synthetic biology and the amazing potential for both food and fiber industries. This event will bring together those interested and passionate about synthetic biology to meet likeminded people and learn more about fast approaching revolution.

About Bolt Threads

Bolt Threads are a world-leading synthetic biology company producing spider silk fibers using synthetic biology techniques. Bolt Threads currently have two products: micro silk, a spider silk produced without the use of a single spider, this can be woven into accessories and clothing, they've also launched Mylo, a leather substitute produced using the underground root system of mushrooms.

Bolt Threads have raised in excess of USD $200m to bring this amazing technology to market.

About your host

Amit Tewari is the founder of Soul Burger, Australia's first all vegan burger chain. When transitioning from traditional meat products to plant-based alternatives Amit recognised a huge opportunity for synthetic biology to provide genuine alternatives to raising livestock. For the last few years Amit has been enthusiastically investigating clean meat products.

Do you have a passion for deep technology? Are you curious what new advancements are being made by start-ups which will shape the industries of the future?

Or, are you looking for a new job opportunity to work for one of the start-ups, scale ups or innovative corporates who are creating these new deep technologies?

Cicada Innovations is opening its doors for the annual Emerge - STEM Careers Expo. This event, through sponsorship through UrbanGrowth NSW Development Corporation and City of Sydney will showcase deep tech start-ups, scale ups, special guest speakers and a range of deep technology exhibitions for you to explore first handwhat is being developed here in Australia that will shape the industries of the future.

Furthermore, these companies are looking to hire! There will be over 30+ exhibiting deep tech start-ups, scale ups and innovative corporates at Emerge which are actively recruiting employees and interns.

The Emerge event will consist of two parts: a day exhibition and a networking evening.

About Emerge - STEM Careers Expo:

Building on last year's hugely successful Emerge event, Cicada Innovations will once again join forces with the university and research community, coroporate partners and the deep tech start-up ecosystem to celebrate science-based innovation and promote STEM jobs of the future within industries of the future.

Emerge - STEM Careers Expo Networking evening:

Following the day of exhibitions, Emerge will conclude with a networking event. This is an opportunity for the wider tech ecosystem including start-ups, scale-ups, industry, government and researchers to join us to celebrate Australia's advancements in deep technology.

To conclude the afternoon of exhibitions at Emerge, Cicada Innovations invites you to stay and enjoy drinks and networking with other STEM-passionate professionals. At the evening you can expect to connect with the 30+ deep technology companies and corporate partners involved in the event. You will also have the opportunity to network with Cicada Innovations' deep technology entrepreneurs, our corporate partners, our University shareholders and the extended STEM-focussed innovation ecosystem.

At the networking event, we will be joined by The Hon. Matt Kean, Minister for Innovationand Better Regulation, Petra Andren, Cicada Innovations CEO and a keynote by Lisa Harvey-Smith, Astrophysicist and Professor.

Emerge event details:

12:00pm: Doors open

12:00pm - 5:00pm: Chat to exhibiting companies who are looking to hire & check out the deep tech demos including mind operated drones by Emotiv, "Groundhog" defense robot by the ACFR and citizen-science projects by the Biofoundry. Check out the full exhibitor and speaker line-up on the Emerge event webpage!

Special guest speakers: Throughout the afternoon you will have a chance to hear from thought-provoking speakers from the deep technology ecosystem.

5:00pm - 7:30pm:Emerge Networking Evening event!

6:00pm: We will be joined by The Hon. Matt Kean, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, Petra Andren, Cicada Innovations CEO and a keynote by Lisa Harvey-Smith, Astrophysicist and Professor.

This is an opportunity for the wider tech ecosystem including start-ups, scale-ups, industry, government and researchers to join us to celebrate Australia's advancements in deep technology.

Project XX is an educational event and workshop targeting women studying STEM at the University and allowing them to explore career paths within STEM outside of academia. The workshop will be partly led by female entrepreneurs from Cicada Innovations' deep technology startups, sharing their expertise and experiences while increasing awareness of the range of opportunities for women arising from STEM education.

Following the workshop the attendees are invited to stay and network with inspirational women in STEM

OBJECTIVES & BENEFITS

Encourage female undergrad, post grad and PhD students to pursue a career in STEM

Inspire women to found their own tech startups or to work in a tech startup or scale-up by tapping into Cicada Innovations’ community of female deep tech entrepreneurs

Increase awareness of the range of opportunities for women arising from STEM education

Provide female university students with options to consider an alternate career pathway with advanced technology startups

Provide women with a network of other like-minded women in STEM

COURSE DETAILS

Project XX is a half-day informative and interactive course taking place on developed and facilitated by Cicada Innovations’ female business advisors.

Women entrepreneurs from our deep technology startups will also assist in the delivery of this workshop, sharing their expertise, experiences and inspirational stories. Women led session for women!

Following the workshop, we will invite attendees to stay for drinks, nibbles and networking with the other aspiring women entrepreneurs, women studying STEM subjects, other deep technology enthusiasts and the workshop facilitators

Hear from six of Australia’s most exciting up-and-coming agrifoodtech founders pitch how they’re shaping our future food system which includes edge AI for animal health monitoring, emerging alternative protein sources as well as plastic alternatives made from recycled food waste.

Register now to secure your seat for the night which includes food (from Newtown’s Bovine & Swine) and drinks, and spend the evening hearing some great pitches alongside agrifoodtech founders, industry leaders and investors.

In partnership with Meat & Livestock Australia's Donor Company, Cicada GrowLab is Cicada Innovations' agrifoodtech accelerator which is now in it's second crop with now a total of twelve companies in its portfolio.

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) is a scheme administered by Austrade, that enables Australia companies developing an export market to claim back 50% of all expenses associated with developing and marketing their export business. *Applications are open until 30 November*

The Research and Development Tax Incentive (R&D Tax Incentive) is tax incentive scheme administered by AusIndustry that enables companies engaged in technical research and development to claim up to 41% of all expenses associated with the technical research and development.

Cicada MedLab is a four month mentor-driven accelerator for early-stage founders who are building high-growth medtech businesses.

Based at Cicada Innovations in Sydney, MedLab provides everything to grow and scale a medtech business including $50k in investment and is supported by an amazing group of experienced innovators, investors and business builders.

The program comprises of a four month hands-on on-site accelerator program with a further eight months incubation at Cicada Innovations with goal to rapidly accelerate the startup’s business and raise their first round of capital.

Startups selected into MedLab receive:

INVESTMENT: $50K invested for 5% equity or at the same terms of a current raise

MENTOR NETWORK: Mentoring by leading industry specialists, investors and business builders

In addition to all of this, selected startups in MedLab may be invited at the end of the twelve month program to join the Incubator at Cicada Innovations for long-term support. This will provide ongoing support and mentoring from founders who have been through the process of building a startup themselves in addition to knowledge sessions, professional services and discounted rent at Cicada Innovations.

Join us to hear more about program, what to expect, who we're looking for and how to apply! You'll have the opportunity to meet the Program Team, and ask us any questions during networking after the information session over light refreshments.